Marijuana activists and law enforcement officials sparred Thursday
as the bell rang on the fight over medical-marijuana dispensary
regulations at the state Capitol.

The first committee hearing on House Bill 1284 -- which would
require dispensaries to be licensed by both state and local
governments and is the more controversial of the two
medical-marijuana bills at the Capitol -- stretched into the
evening. Lawmakers said late Thursday that they would not vote on
the measure until another date.

What was most clear in early rounds was that neither the law
enforcement community nor large sections of the medical-marijuana
community much care for the bill.

Activists argued the bill could restrict patient access to
marijuana, infringe upon constitutional rights and lead to
suffering. Law enforcement groups raised concerns that a legal
dispensary system would lead to fraud and a perpetuation of the
illegal marijuana market.

A rewrite of the bill unveiled at the hearing would require
dispensaries to first obtain a license from a local government and
then get a state license. Dispensaries would have to grow most of
the marijuana they sell. But the new version would also allow for
separate licenses for marijuana-growing facilities tied to
dispensaries -- which could sell a portion of what they grow to
other dispensaries -- and for marijuana product-makers.

Patients who qualify for medical marijuana will be able to get
prescriptions for it from a wider range of health-care
professionals, under a bill that appears headed to the governor's
desk.

Under Senate Bill 5798, it won't just be doctors who can get sick
people access to pot.

The bill expands the list of licensed medical practitioners who can
also recommend medical marijuana to physicians' assistants, nurse
practitioners and naturopathic physicians, said one of its sponsors,
Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle.

"The reason is that, especially in rural areas in the state and away
from Puget Sound, because of long distances, many people do not see
M.D.s. They see nurse practitioners and physicians assistants who
have prescriptive authority," Kohl-Welles said.

A representative of Kohl-Welles said the bill passed through the
House Wednesday night "with little debate."

For his next DVD series designed to help marijuana smokers avoid the
hassle of law enforcement, Barry N. Cooper may want to come up with
a new name.

The former Odessa narcotics agent and producer of the promotional
video series "Never Get Busted" was jailed Tuesday on multiple
charges - - including possession of marijuana - while conducting one
of his notorious hoaxes on police in Florence, Texas, authorities
said.

Williamson County Sheriff's Office Sgt. John Foster said Cooper
recently called in a suspicious package on the campus of the
Florence Middle School. Foster said the package contained "a glass
pipe that is normally used to smoke crack cocaine."

"Apparently, he was doing this to test us," Foster said. "When you
do something like this on a school grounds, even though it's after
school hours . I'm sure the parents and faculty would probably have
been quite alarmed to find a crack pipe on their campus."

Foster said the officers were being filmed but did not know it at
the time. Cooper was jailed on charges of filing a false report, a
misdemeanor. Travis County authorities searched his house shortly
after the arrest and reportedly located a small amount of marijuana,
Foster said. Cooper also was charged with one count of misdemeanor
possession of marijuana.

EL PASO -- A DEA agent testified Wednesday that telephones seized as
evidence in a major drug trial linked many suspects to high-level
Mexican drug leaders affiliated with the Sinaloa cartel.

The agent and other witnesses in the trial of Fernando
Ontiveros-Arambula and Manuel Chavez-Betancourt also revealed the
new hierarchies of organized crime in Chihuahua state since the drug
wars began two years ago.

For example, witnesses said Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman's Sinaloa drug
cartel toppled Vicente Carrillo Fuentes' drug-cartel leaders in the
Valle de Juarez -- a corridor across the border from Fabens, Fort
Hancock and Tornillo.

Witnesses said Gabino "Ingeniero" Salas-Valencio is in charge of the
Valle de Juarez smuggling route for Guzman, and Jose Antonio
Torres-Marrufo is his new top man in Juarez.

Noel Salguero, who is wanted by the DEA, is a high-level leader of
La Gente Nueva (the new people). U.S. drug investigators have said
La Gente Nueva is an emerging group that has made incursions into
drug-trafficking in Juarez.

Contacts on telephones seized from Ontiveros-Arambula and his
associates included those of operatives who adopted feline animals
for nicknames -- "puma," "pantera" (panther) and "jaguar."

The DEA agent said "pantera" is the nickname of a Mexican military
official who provided the Sinaloa cartel with intelligence about
rival drug dealers.

The times seem to be a changin'. A California insurer has designed a
program for medical marijuana providers. Elsewhere, some (including
a Chinese government official) realize that drug testing is not a
viable solution for drug problems. And, the U.S. raises alerts for
travelers headed to Juarez, Mexico, while city officials insist
tourists are safe.

A Rancho Cordova-based insurer Monday launched what it calls the
first nationally available insurance coverage designed specifically
for the medical marijuana industry.

Only 14 states allow use of medical marijuana today, but Statewide
Insurance Services is nonetheless offering coverage in all 50
states.

"Given the growth in the industry, I think it's only a matter of
time" before other states allow medical marijuana, said Mike Aberle,
a commercial insurance agent with the local firm and national
director of its Medical Marijuana Specialty Division.

He added: "Now that we can offer (services) in all 50 states, we can
start the minute they go legal, without delay."

Finally, someone has had the courage to tackle the scourge of drug
abuse at the Statehouse, where legislating under the influence is a
problem of epidemic proportions.

Senators, stoned.

House members, half-baked.

It's like Woodstock, except with suits and comb-overs. Shoot, did
you see that a committee approved a bill last week naming an
official state grass?

Clearly, it's time for an intervention.

OK, enough kidding around. None of the above is remotely true except
for the part about the official state grass, and that designation
would go to little bluestem - not to anything you might find on
Willie Nelson's tour bus.

The reality is that a good many legislators probably wouldn't know
Thai stick from a Popsicle stick and would be surprised to learn
that those tiny glass "flower vases" sold at some convenience stores
are actually crack pipes. And even if lawmakers did have a taste for
narcotics, it would be hard to get away with drug use for long in
the very public and fiercely partisan environment of the
Legislature.

So it was hard not to snicker at Rep. Kasha Kelley's proposal to
start randomly drug-testing state legislators.

Or it would have been, anyway, if not for the fact that Kelley's
suggestion - which she apparently made with a straight face - would
result in a waste of perfectly good time and money if adopted.

A top narcotics advisor says expanding the school drug testing
scheme to all districts would be too costly.

Action Committee Against Narcotics chief Daniel Shek Tan-lei said
schools themselves, rather than the government, should take the lead
if the scheme is to be extended.

He also called for more attention to be focused on drug abusers in
other age groups.

His comments follow a report by the Narcotics Division which said
projections based on its 2008-09 survey suggest that as many as
3,000 upper primary and three times as many secondary students could
be abusing drugs.

A total of 158,000 students, comprising about 20 percent of the
student population of 817,000, were polled. The survey said up to
4.3 percent of secondary school students could be into drugs - an
increase of one percentage point over a survey conducted four years
earlier.

Shek said that while the figures are alarming, the situation is not
as bad as in North America.

Nonetheless, it has exposed the "fairy tale" that children from
prestigious schools or with rich parents are not involved.

Shek said the drug-testing scheme, which began in Tai Po schools
last December, is proving a success.

EL PASO -- A new State Department travel alert advises U.S. citizens
to "exercise extreme caution" when visiting Juarez, Chihuahua state
and other violent regions of Mexico.

The latest alert, which updates one issued in August, has stronger
language than those in the past two years as drug violence has
flared in different parts of the country.

An alert is just a step below a travel warning.

The alert mentioned Juarez, Nuevo Casas Grandes and other
communities in northwestern Chihuahua and the Valley of Juarez
(across the border from Fabens).

Jaime Torres, a spokes man for the Juarez city government, countered
that despite the violence that has claimed more than 4,600 lives
since 2008, the city is safe for visitors because of high-visibility
security, including army soldiers, in tourist zones.

A year after the Fresno Police Department disbanded its major
narcotics squad, a criminal case under way in federal court is
shedding light on what may have gone wrong.

The case involves Theresa Martinez, who is on trial in U.S. District
Court in Fresno, accused of selling drugs to a police informant.

Martinez's defense lawyers say the charges are bogus because she was
working as a Fresno police informant when she was arrested in March
2008. They say narcotics officers set her up.

But prosecutors say she wasn't an informant at all by that time and
is just looking for a way to get off the hook.

"When the muck settles, it will be crystal clear that Ms. Martinez
is guilty," Assistant U.S. Attorney Elana Landau said.

Her allegations, meanwhile, have sparked a flurry of testimony about
the credibility of Fresno's narcotics investigators -- and so far it
paints a picture of cozy relationships between drug informants and
police officers. For example:

A sergeant testified that he and other officers let an informant get
away with the armed robbery of drug dealers. The informant was not
arrested, and no police reports were made.

An officer testified that he gave informants cell phones that police
had confiscated from drug dealers. The cell phones were never booked
into evidence.

Two officers related by marriage were disciplined for renting a
relative's house to an informant, one of the officers testified.

Police Chief Jerry Dyer disbanded the drug unit in February 2009
after two of its officers were charged with stealing a drug
suspect's van.

The economic squeeze on the Mississippi Department of Corrections
means hundreds of nonviolent inmates could see fewer days behind
bars.

MDOC Commissioner Chris Epps said he has asked the state Parole
Board to review the files of some 2,100 inmates who have been denied
parole.

"I recommended to the governor that, in my view, we should have the
parole board relook at these individuals," Epps said.

He estimated that about 25 percent - or 525 inmates - could earn
parole on a second look for a savings of about $1.5 million before
the fiscal year ends June 30.

Epps also is backing legislation moving through the Legislature that
would allow drug offenders, excluding traffickers, to earn 30 days
off their sentence per month for every equal day they participate in
a work, rehabilitation or education program.

He said granting 30-for-30 trusty time to drug offenders could net
savings as high as $8 million from this March through 2013. Other
nonviolent offenders are already eligible.

Legislature Weighs Early Release Of Prisoners To Help With Budget
Woes

COLUMBIA -- Word that the state's latest cost-cutting plan included
possibly dumping 3,000 prison inmates on the streets sent shivers
through South Carolina last week, but experts say millions could be
saved with little danger to the public.

States across the nation are grappling with the same problem as
prison costs chew up a sizable chunk of their budgets in the midst
of a crippling recession. Law enforcement officials argue that the
potential threat to public safety justifies the expense. But others
aren't so sure.

"We can't afford the high cost of incarceration. Period," said Rep.
Gilda Cobb-Hunter, an Orangeburg Democrat and a longtime member of
the House Ways and Means Committee. "The reality is that we, for
years, have locked everybody up without any thought to the cost."

The proposal comes at a time when lawmakers are scrambling to save
money. Falling revenues and a series of tax cuts passed by the
Republican-controlled Legislature have bled more than $2 billion
from the state budget. Spending is now about $5.2 billion.

Mexican authorities on Saturday arrested a third man in connection
with the massacre at a house party last month in Juarez that left 15
people dead.

Chihuahua Joint Operation officials said former municipal police
officer Aldo Favio Hernandez Lozano, 36, allegedly worked as a hit
man for the Juarez cartel, also known as La Linea.

Officials said Hernandez Lozano told authorities he killed at least
one person who tried to escape the shooting Jan. 30 at a birthday
party in the 1300 block of Villas del Portal. Eleven of the victims
were teen agers.

While officials said some of the victims were gang members, most
were identified by friends and relatives as students and athletes.

Those Who've Smoked For At Least 6 Years Are Twice As Likely To Have
Delusions As Non-Users

Young people who smoke cannabis or marijuana for six years or more are
twice as likely to have psychotic episodes, hallucinations or
delusions than people who have never used the drug, scientists said
Monday.

The finding adds weight to previous research that linked psychosis
with the drug -- particularly in its most potent form as "skunk" --
and will feed the debate about the level of controls over its use.

Despite laws against it, up to 190 million people around the world use
cannabis, according to United Nations estimates, equating to about
four per cent of the adult population.

John McGrath of the Queensland Brain Institute in Australia studied
more than 3,801 men and women born between 1981 and 1984 and followed
them up after 21 years to ask about their cannabis use and assessed
them for psychotic episodes. Around 18 per cent reported using
cannabis for three or fewer years, 16 per cent for four to five years
and 14 per cent for six or more years.

"Compared with those who had never used cannabis, young adults who had
six or more years since first use of cannabis were twice as likely to
develop a non-affective psychosis (such as schizophrenia)," McGrath
wrote in a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry
journal.

[snip]

An international group of drug policy experts published a book earlier
this year arguing that laws against cannabis have failed to cut its
use but instead led to vast numbers of arrests for drug possession in
countries such as Britain, Switzerland and the United States, which
causes social division and pointless government expense.

More than two years after Denver voters approved a measure making
minor marijuana crimes the city's lowest law-enforcement priority,
city officials continue to prosecute marijuana cases at a steady clip.
Denver city attorneys last year prosecuted 1,696 cases in which
possession of less than an ounce of marijuana was at least one of the
charges.

In 2008, 1,658 cases were prosecuted. In 2006 - the year before the
initiative was approved - prosecutors handled 1,841 marijuana cases.

Police citations for possession of small amounts of marijuana continue
unabated as well. Figures for citations and prosecutions were released
last week at a meeting of the city's Marijuana Policy Review Panel.

The continued enforcement has frustrated some members of the panel,
which was created by the voter initiative to implement the new law.

"Police should not be spending any time arresting and citing people
for marijuana," said Mason Tvert, who runs the pro-marijuana-
legalization group SAFER and is a member of the panel. "Voters do not
want them to issue those citations."

Denver prosecutors, meanwhile, say their hands are tied in the
marijuana cases because they are bound in those cases to follow state
law, not local law.

DENVER - Lawmakers who want to regulate the state's growing medical
marijuana industry are now willing to let dispensaries advertise and
operate for profit, but they want to make sure the state can keep tabs
on the source of their products.

The overhauled regulations, up for their first vote at the Capitol on
Thursday, were worked out in negotiations with dispensaries and
patient advocates after the bill was introduced a month ago by Rep.
Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs, and Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver.

The latest compromise, however, hasn't satisfied everyone.

Patient groups believe the bill goes too far in limiting the rights of
patients. Patients would give up their right to grow their own
marijuana if they purchase pot at a dispensary, and no one could
possess medical marijuana within 1,000 feet of a school or a daycare
center.

Brian Vicente, the executive director of Sensible Colorado, a medical
marijuana patients' group, said that could stop people from using
medical marijuana in their own homes.

"We're pretty upset that after months of negotiations, we've reached a
point where this bill wholesale sells patients out for the interests
of dispensaries and law enforcement," he said.

His group is preparing to ask voters to pass an alternative plan this
fall if they think lawmakers go too far.

[snip]

The legitimacy that comes from regulation is exactly why the bill is
strongly opposed by those in law enforcement, including Attorney
General John Suthers.

Ted Tow, executive director of the Colorado District Attorneys
Council, said voters only intended for there to be small scale grows
of marijuana by individuals or their care givers, not businesses, when
they passed the medical marijuana law in 2000.

The supporters of "the compassionate use of marijuana" for the sick
and dying have numerous stories of cancer-stricken family members who
received some benefit from using marijuana. Those stories tug at your
heart leaving you with the idea that if it makes them more comfortable
before they die, then what is the harm in letting them smoke
marijuana?

The harm comes when legislators allow patients to grow their own
marijuana and grow for other patients. Several states have lost
control of medical marijuana programs and I want to share their
problems before we make the same mistake.

First, we must accept that marijuana is the most sought after illegal
drug in the United States. It is a multi-billion dollar illegal
industry.

The compassionate use of marijuana program is intended for people
suffering from cancer, AIDS and other debilitating diseases. However,
there is a catchall in the legislation that usually states, "Or any
other condition where a doctor believes marijuana would benefit the
patient."This means anyone who wants to smoke marijuana can and will
with the right doctor's recommendation. In a study in San Diego, only
2 percent of the medical marijuana patients actually had cancer, AIDS
or glaucoma. The other 98 percent reported some form of pain or
anxiety. The overwhelming majority of medical marijuana patients were
males under the age of 40.

Who can recommend medical marijuana? A qualifying practitioner is any
physician, dentist, podiatrist or veterinarian licensed to prescribe
drugs. So yes, you could get a recommendation from your veterinarian
to smoke marijuana. In California, it has been reported that doctors
have opened up shop in hotel rooms for the weekend advertising medical
marijuana recommendations. This is obviously not the legislators'
intent for "compassionate care."

[snip]

Chris Endress is director of the Quad City Metropolitan Enforcement
Group.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is forming a committee to
re-open investigations into the "extra-judicial" murders of over
2,500 people in the name of fighting drug abuse. The killings were
believed to be the work of police who had been urged by then-prime
minister Thaksin Shinawatra to rid the land of drug users. Earlier,
Abhisit "accused Thaksin of committing crimes against humanity by
ordering the extra-judicial killings of more than 2,500 people
suspected of involvement in drug trafficking, during the war on
drugs in 2003."

Although the Washington Times in February assured readers the
"assault under way in southern Afghanistan", has a "secondary
mission of disrupting insurgent drug trafficking" (DrugSense Weekly,
Feb. 19) This week, the Associated Press assured readers that the
"Taliban, not drugs" is the "focus of US-Afghan offensive". These
days, according to AP writer Alfred de Montesquiou, instead of the
DEA tossing big opium producers -- the people that make the raw
material for heroin -- into jail, "the whole 'hearts and minds'
thing kicks in." So, "Instead, they'll hand him [the guy with the
opium lab] $600 in rent for using his place as a base."

The U.S. government just wanted you to know, in case there was any
doubt: they may be giving the Mexican government billions of
dollars, it may send to the Mexican army rifles and weapons of every
shape in description. The U.S. government (at taxpayer expense of
course) may cycle Mexican police and military personnel through
endless training sessions (again, the U.S. taxpayer pays) in every
resort city you can think of to keep the Mexican army and police
sharp and capable, capable to keep drugs from youth. (Almost as
capable as U.S. police, but not quite.) All this to fight "drugs"
(read: marijuana). But if there is one thing the U.S. government is
not doing it is this: they're not "embedding" what would be called
"agents" in "anti-drug units in Juarez." The government denials
follow Washington Post reports that U.S. anti-drug agents have been
entangled with Mexican police in exactly that way.

In Canada, we get a glimpse into the shock when someone realizes
that people tossed into jail stand a good chance of having worse
drugs problems when they get out of jail, as when they went in. That
is if they don't drop dead of a drug O.D. inside of the prison,
first. "Why are inmates dying of drug overdoses in locked
facilities? Don't you feel embarrassed?," asks Chris Campbell in the
Maple Ridge Times last week. Rather than examine or question the
whole rotten edifice of prohibition and question any basic
fundamental assumptions, Campbell meekly chips around the edges.
Someone "thinks guards might be bringing in drugs" and so "wants
better measures to keep drugs out of prison."

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will set up a committee to
reinvestigate the extra-judicial killings of drug suspects during
the Thaksin Shinawatra administration's war on drugs.

Mr Abhisit announced the formation of the panel yesterday after
being questioned in parliament by Chalerm Yubamrung, chief of the
Puea Thai Party MPs.

Mr Chalerm said that when Mr Abhisit was the leader of the
opposition bloc, he accused Thaksin of committing crimes against
humanity by ordering the extra-judicial killings of more than 2,500
people suspected of involvement in drug trafficking, during the war
on drugs in 2003.

[snip]

The Justice Ministry had looked into the extra-judicial killing
allegations and found that many claims were true.

The panel appointed by the Surayud government did not reach any
recommendations on who was responsible for the killings.

The panel's tenure expired before it could complete its findings and
the People Power Party-led coalition government did not take it up.

Two U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration employees nosing around the
base found more than two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of opium, five large
bags of poppy seeds, some 50 sickles, jugs and a large scale for
measuring opium.

When the Marines leave the compound this week, though, they won't
detain the old, bearded Afghan man suspected of owning the hidden
cache. Instead, they'll hand him $600 in rent for using his place as
a base.

It's a story that illustrates the shift in strategy to stall the
Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan. The more than 2-week-old military
offensive on the town of Marjah-NATO's largest ever combined Afghan
offensive-is a war on the Taliban, not drugs.

[snip]

Murad could face arrest and prosecution. "But then the whole 'hearts
and minds' thing kicks in," Joe said, referring to the U.S.
military's policy of doing its best not to antagonize local Afghan
civilians.

Anyhow, the cache wasn't substantial enough to go through the wobbly
legal system in Kabul. "It doesn't meet the threshold," said Jack,
stating the best bet for prosecution would be at the local level in
Marjah, with the council of elders.

But Murad, as it turns out, heads the local council, making him an
unlikely target for prosecution.

"I'd like his case to be investigated," said Lt. Scott Holub, of 3rd
Battalion, 6th Marines, who negotiated renting the compound with
Murad. "But the squeeze isn't worth the juice."

EL PASO -- The U.S. Embassy in Mexico denied news reports that the
U.S. government is embedding agents in Mexican anti-drug units in
Juarez.

Embassy officials said cooperation between both countries was
limited to equipment, training and sharing of law enforcement
intelligence.

Carlos Pascual, U.S. ambassador to Mexico, on Wednesday denied
information published by The Washington Post that U.S. agents would
work from a Mexican command center to catch drug cartel leaders and
hit men in the deadliest city in Mexico.

[snip]

The El Paso Times reported in 2008 that Drug Enforcement
Administration agents began working with the Mexican military and
federal police in Juarez to battle drug cartels.

DEA officials in El Paso did not want to comment on the cooperation
on Wednesday.

The DEA has had agents in Juarez, Mexico City and other cities in
Mexico for decades, and when Mexican President Felipe Calderon began
cracking down on the cartels, the U.S. government began sharing
intelligence and training Mexican military.

A different question is to the people who run our prison system: Why
are inmates dying of drug overdoses in locked facilities? Don't you
feel embarrassed?

The Tuesday edition of The TIMES told the story of Kyle Wigham, a
young man who died of a heroin overdose less than a month after
arriving at Maple Ridge's Fraser Regional Correctional Centre. A
coroner's report said there was evidence of other drugs in the cell,
including oxycodone.

Kyle's mom Patricia -- who turned her son in after he robbed a
7-Eleven store because she wanted him to get drug treatment --
thinks guards might be bringing in drugs. She wants better measures
to keep drugs out of prison.

She also said Kyle had not tried heroin before he went to jail. What
does this say about our prison system?

You might have read Kyle's story and wondered why we should care.
After all, he was just a criminal. Aside from the fact that he's
somebody's son, my question to you is if you want to see crime go
down, wouldn't you want the drug addicts committing the crimes to
get treatment so when they get out of jail they don't have to steal
to feed their habit? And wouldn't you want them to not develop even
worse drug habits while in prison?

Kevin Metcalfe shot Larry Kuahuia because Kuahuia surreptitiously
entered his property in the middle of the night in order to steal
marijuana. Kuahuia is dead, Metcalfe faces prison for manslaughter,
and the taxpayers are out thousands of dollars in court fees, plus
additional costs, for incarcerating Metcalfe.

Needless to say, this "drug-related" incident wouldn't have happened
if not for the federal government's maniacal refusal to heed the
wishes of those it is charged to serve and protect rather than
dominate.

This was just one incident, and it occurred on a tiny corner of a
volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean. But it's part of the United
States, and there aren't many people who know how often such
tragedies occur each and every year in our country, and the
resulting loss of life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and tax
dollars.

No one has to tell us why murder, rape, assault, corruption,
extortion, drunken driving and theft are illegal. But marijuana use
is illegal because of lies, and it remains illegal for self-serving
government purposes that have nothing to do with sanity or civil
order, and it epitomizes the arrogance of government power.

The war on marijuana is an illegal war against the American people
and the world. It is a war without end and it promotes anarchy. It
is a federal crime that produces civil crime on a massive scale, and
if marijuana were ever to become legal, a dramatic decline in the
crime rate would be a foregone conclusion.

Since the above incident was the direct result of a federal crime,
the federal government should at least pay for the court costs, and
if they have a conscience, they should end the madness.

The federal law that mandates harsher prison terms for people
arrested with crack cocaine than for those caught with cocaine
powder is scientifically and morally indefensible. Bills to end the
disparity are pending in both the House and Senate. Democrats who
worry about being pegged as "soft on crime" will have to find their
backbones and push the legislation through.

Congress passed the law during the crack hysteria of the 1980s when
it was widely and wrongly believed that crack - cocaine cooked in
baking soda - was more addictive and led to more drug violence than
the chemically identical powdered form. These myths were soon
disproved. But by then, Congress had locked the courts into a policy
under which minority drug addicts arrested with small amounts of
crack were being sent to prison for far longer terms than white drug
users caught with a satchel full of powder.

The United States Sentencing Commission, which sets guidelines for
the federal courts, found several years ago that more than 80
percent of those imprisoned for crack offenses were black.

The tough sentencing guidelines also drive drug policy in the wrong
direction - imprisoning addicts for years when they could be more
cheaply and effectively treated in community-based programs. An
analysis by Senator Richard Durbin, a Democrat of Illinois,
estimates that ending the sentencing disparity could save the
country more than a half-a-billion dollars in prison costs over the
next 15 years.

In the House, a bill that ends the disparity has been voted out of
committee but has yet to go to the floor. The Senate bill is having
trouble attracting support, including from Democrats. It is time to
finally put aside crack myths and hysteria. This isn't a question of
being soft on crime. It is an issue of fairness and sound public
policy.

"Under pressure of the cares and sorrows of our mortal condition,
men have at all times, and in all countries, called in some physical
aid to the moral consolations - wine, beer, opium or tobacco." -
Edmund Burke

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